(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to delay a writer’s defamation and battery case that is scheduled to go on trial this month, arguing the “deluge” of media coverage of his recent indictment on 34 criminal charges makes fairness impossible.
The writer, E. Jean Carroll, sued Trump in November alleging he defamed her by calling her a liar when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room. She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations.
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations.
The trial is scheduled to begin April 25 in Manhattan federal court but Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, asked the judge for a “cooling off” period in an overnight filing.
“President Trump can only receive a fair trial in a calmer media environment than the one created by the New York County District Attorney,” Tacopina wrote in a letter to the judge asking for a four-week delay.
If the trial goes forward as scheduled, “prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind,” Tacopina said.
Carroll opposed Trump’s attempt to delay her upcoming defamation and battery case, calling it “obviously meritless.”
Her attorneys took issue with Trump’s assertion the publicity associated with his indictment makes it impossible for the court to seat a fair jury.
“Trump is exceptionally ill-suited to complain about fairness when he has instigated (and sought to benefit from) so much of the very coverage about which he now complains,” Carroll’s attorneys said in a letter to the judge.
Trump is not required to attend the trial. The judge has given Trump’s attorneys until next week to inform the court whether he will attend.
(WASHINGTON) — With Americans’ access to the abortion pill mifepristone still in limbo, Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday convened a meeting of a White House task force on reproductive health care during which Cabinet officials expanded on a new way they intend to protect a person’s privacy when it comes to abortion access.
The meeting fell just hours after the Department of Health and Human Services announced it had drafted a new federal rule intended to make clear to doctors and other medical professionals that divulging details of a person getting an abortion violates the privacy law HIPAA.
Harris explained that an exception written into the 1996 HIPAA law provides that if law enforcement officials needed information in pursuit of a criminal matter, they could access a person’s medical records after getting a court order.
The new rule is in response to several red states passing laws, in the wake of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade, which abortion rights advocates warn are intended to criminalize health care providers and women who seek abortions, even in states where the procedure is legal.
This proposed change, then, is aimed at blunting state-run investigations into women traveling for abortions, so it would essentially provide cover for doctors where abortion is legal to not provide records in investigations stemming from states where the procedure is not.
“I have met with and talked with doctors who are in fear of losing their license or being prosecuted, and of this situation actually having an impact on the relationships of trust that they have with their patients. This indeed is a health care crisis in America,” Harris said.
“Since the Dobbs’ decision, in particular, many states have proposed and passed laws that are now going to criminalize health care providers for providing reproductive health care,” she continued. “It’s going to be a crime, which means that it is very likely if law enforcement requests your personal and private medical records, they may be entitled to receive them.”
Medical providers and doctors would not be forced to comply with those investigations if the proposed rule is finalized, officials said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland flanked Harris for the discussion, to expand on what the change means.
Becerra, like Harris, said his office has already heard “first-hand” from women that their health care providers are being targeted by hostile actors trying to weaponize private information surrounding abortion care.
“And so we want to make sure we do everything we can to ensure patient privacy, bolster trust between individuals and their health care providers and enable individuals to obtain high-quality appropriate health care,” he said.
Garland also made his first public comments about the mifepristone ruling by the federal judge in Texas, since the Justice Department appealed it, saying the nation’s top law enforcement agency “strongly disagrees with the court’s unprecedented decision.”
An example of the rule’s application might be Idaho prosecutors investigating whether an adult helped drive a minor out of state for an abortion, which would violate the state’s “abortion trafficking” law. Doctors who assisted the patient out-of-state would not be required to comply with Idaho’s investigation.
“I have met with doctors across the country who have shared their stories,” said Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the civil rights office within Health and Human Services, which drafted the rule. “These providers have expressed fear, anger, and sadness that they or their patients may end up in jail for providing or obtaining evidence-based and medically appropriate care.”
According to a senior administration official, the concern is that some doctors — particularly with smaller practices — might be fearful when faced with subpoenas. This rule reminds them that the federal law prohibiting them from sharing sensitive medical information includes reproductive health care.
Following a 60-day public comment period, the rule will need to be finalized before taking effect.
ABC News Anne Flaherty and Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — New York City now has a “rat czar.”
Kathleen Corradi has been named the city’s director of rodent mitigation.
“You’ll be seeing a lot of me and a lot less rats,” Corradi said Wednesday after she was introduced by Mayor Eric Adams.
Added Adams: “Kathy has the knowledge, drive, experience, and energy to send rats packing and create a cleaner more welcoming city for all New Yorkers.”
The mayor also announced $3.5 million for rat mitigation in Harlem. The money will fund new techniques and new staff members to inspect, exterminate and clean public spaces.
“He hates rats. I hate rats. Every New Yorker hates rats,” Corradi said. “Rats are tough but New Yorkers are tougher.”
Corradi, a former elementary school teacher and land use expert who specializes in urban sustainability, was chosen out of 900 applicants.
“Destiny was calling. You see, I have a long history with rats,” she said.
As a child, Corradi said she used to campaign for anti-rat measures in her neighborhood and she previously served as a garden coordinator at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
She promised to immediately take on litter, garbage and food waste where rats thrive. She will also decide what new products the city should use to get rid of rats.
“Rat mitigation is more than a quality-of-life issue for New Yorkers,” she said. “Rats are a symptom of systemic issues, including sanitation, health, housing, and economic justice. New York may be famous for the Pizza Rat, but rats, and the conditions that help them thrive will no longer be tolerated — no more dirty curbs, unmanaged spaces, or brazen burrowing.”
The city’s sanitation department previously announced an anti-rat measure to limit the amount of time trash bags sit on curbs.
On Wednesday, James Gunnrevealed the lineup for Creature Commandos, the first animated series for his and Peter Safran‘s new DC Studios timeline.
Based on the comic series of the same name about a WWII-era super team, the show will star the voices of Stranger Things‘ David Harbour, Lamborghini‘s Frank Grillo, The Suicide Squad‘s Sean Gunn and Steve Agee, Rogue One‘s Alan Tudyk, Indira Varma, Zoe Chao and Maria Bakalova.
Interestingly, Harbour will be bouncing from Marvel’s MCU to the DC Universe: He played The Red Guardian in Black Widow, which he will be reprising in Thunderbolts. Similarly, Grillo has starred in several Marvel movies as the villain Brock Rumlow/Crossbones; James’ brother Sean played Kraglin and performed Rocket Raccoon on set in James’ Guardians of the Galaxy movies and in Thor: Love and Thunder; and Bakalova’s voice will be heard as Cosmo the Spacedog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Agee will be reprising as his Suicide Squad/Peacemaker character John Economos; Harbour will play Frankenstein; Varma will play The Bride; Sean will voice GI Robot and his The Suicide Squad character The Weasel; Tudyk will voice Dr. Phosphorus; Chao will voice Nina Mazursky; and Bakalova will voice Princess Ilana.
Grillo, Gunn noted, will be playing Rick Flagg Sr. “across all media,” meaning he could play the role in live-action, as well. Canonically, he’s the dad of Joel Kinnaman‘s Suicide Squad character Rick Flagg.
(NEW YORK) — NPR will stop sharing content on Twitter, the company announced Wednesday — a rebuke of certain labels the social media platform attached to the news outlet.
The international media non-profit said the categorization — first as “US state-affiliated media” and later “government-funded media” — prompted the outlet to stop posting “fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds,” according to a Wednesday statement.
“It would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here to continue to share it on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards,” NPR CEO John Lansing said in an email to staff explaining the decision.
Owned by Elon Musk, Twitter is working to undermine NPR’s credibility, the outlet said.
”NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” NPR said in a statement Wednesday.
Twitter labeled NPR’s main account as “US state-affiliated media” last week. The “state-affiliated media” stamp is also used to identify media outlets run or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments, like in Russia or China.
Twitter policy defines its labeling of state-affiliated media accounts as outlets where “the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”
The company later changed NPR’s label to “government-funded media,” a stamp that has since remained. At least one other public news organization, the BBC, has the same label.
Twitter defines “government-funded media” accounts as “outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.”
On Wednesday, after NPR’s announcement, the GOP’s House Judiciary Twitter account appeared to weigh in on the incident, saying “Defund NPR” in a Tweet.
NPR does not receive direct federal funds, but it receives some government funding through grants from federal agencies and departments. The company said those funds account for less than 1% of their annual operating budget.
In a farewell tweet, NPR suggested people subscribe to its “Up First” newsletter, download the NPR app and enable mobile push alerts.
(TAYLOR FALLS, Minn.) — A search is underway for a teen who fell off a cliff and into the St. Croix River, which runs through Wisconsin and Minnesota, Tuesday night.
Police identified the missing teen as 18-year-old D’Andrea Sanvig of Luck, Wisconsin.
Sanvig was at Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls, Minnesota, near a rock ledge when he lost his footing and fell off a cliff, authorities said. He eventually landed in the water.
“An extensive rescue effort was launched consisting of multiple area agencies. Search efforts were unsuccessful and paused at nightfall. The search will resume in the morning,” Chisago County Sheriff Capt. Derek Anklan said in a statement Wednesday.
Chicago County Emergency Communications Center began receiving 911 calls at around 6 p.m., according to police.
According to police, teams are actively searching for Sanvig by land, water and air.
Officials asked the general public not to search on or near the water at this time. The park issued a warning saying trails “still have significant snow and ice-coverage with bare and muddy areas in between.”
“The flow rate of the river, along with debris typically seen in the spring, has made for dangerous search conditions,” Anklan said.
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday they will not bring charges in the murder of Shanquella Robinson, a Charlotte, North Carolina, resident who was killed in October while vacationing in Mexico.
U.S. Attorneys Sandra J. Hairston and Dena J. King — who represent the Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina — wrote in a statement that in every case under consideration for federal prosecution, the government must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt, that a federal crime was committed.”
“Based on the results of the autopsy and after a careful deliberation and review of the investigative materials by both U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, federal prosecutors informed Ms. Robinson’s family today that the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” they wrote.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Less than a week after being ousted by the Tennessee House of Representatives by the Republican supermajority, District 86 representative Justin J. Pearson has just been reinstated by a unanimous vote by Shelby County Commission.
Pearson’s reinstatement comes just two days after Nashville’s Metropolitan Council unanimously voted to reinstate Rep. Justin Jones, the other representative who was expelled last week for his involvement in a gun control rally. Jones will serve as an interim legislator until a special election is called.
“Nashville thought they could silence democracy,” Pearson said after the commission’s vote. “The message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel justice. You can’t expel our voice. And you ‘shol can’t expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight. Continuing to advocate until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Let’s get back to work.”
Mickell Lowery, chairman of the Shelby County Commission, announced the special meeting Sunday evening.
Lowery shared he believed the Thursday expulsion of Pearson “was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods,” after Pearson, Jones and Rep. Gloria Johnson violated the chamber’s rules of decorum by participating in last month’s protest.
Johnson evaded expulsion by one vote.
“I am amongst the over 68,000 citizens who were stripped of having a representative at the State due to the unfortunate outcome of the State Assembly’s vote,” he said in the statement. “I am certain that the leaders in the State Capitol understand the importance of this action on behalf of the affected citizens here in Shelby County, Tennessee and that we stand ready to work in concert with them to assist with only positive outcomes going forward.”
At the March 30 protest at the Capitol prompted by the Nashville Covenant School shooting three days prior, Jones and Pearson participated and were seen using a bullhorn leading to chants on the House floor, causing a brief interruption in legislative business. Johnson participated also, but was not seen using the bullhorn.
A group of Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Raphael Warnock, wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, urging the Department of Justice to investigate last week’s expulsion of Tennessee Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.
The Senators want the Department to determine “whether any violations of the United States Constitution or federal civil rights laws have occurred, and to take all steps necessary to uphold the democratic integrity of our nation’s legislative bodies.”
“This was a tragedy that happened at the Covenant School in Nashville. But instead of addressing the tragedy, the Republican super-majority in Tennessee decided that using our First Amendment right to listen to the thousands of protesters deserved expulsion,” Pearson said during an ABC News group sit down interview with Jones and Johnson on Monday.
The Shelby County Board of Commissioners decision comes after an over one mile community march on Monday from The National Civil Rights Museum to the County Commission in support of gun violence prevention and support for the reinstatement of Pearson.
“We need to lift up these amazing voices of these young people,” Johnson said prior to the march. “We need a multiracial, multi-generational organization in the Tennessee legislature. And these voices are critical. We need to welcome these young voices and not keep them down. These young people are passionate, they’re smart, they understand the issues and how they affect every single person in their district. And I am so honored. The teacher has become the student and I’m learning from these young men, and I look forward to learning for a long long time.”
“None of this is easy, especially in a state so heavily gerrymandered and so anti-democratic as Tennessee, but our ancestors faced worse and they prevailed. So will we, as long as we stay in the streets, in the halls of power and in the front of the chamber together. Our values of democracy, freedom, equality, safety from gun violence and well-being for all are the majority values in our district, our state and our nation. We are the majority,” Pearson said in a press release Wednesday after being reinstated. “Thank you for bringing me back to the People’s House where we can accomplish great things together. We are the new Tennessee.”
(CHICAGO) — Growing up with nine siblings, who all shared one bathroom, Chicago mayor-elect Brandon Johnson said his father taught him: “We are only as strong as the person who was struggling the most.”
Now, after a highly contested runoff election that garnered national attention, Johnson said he is prepared to live by this mantra as he takes office as Chicago’s 57th mayor.
“We have to make sure we reroute the rivers, if you will, particularly in the places where there’s been drought, to make sure that there’s a flow of infrastructure and investments, because that’s going to make us all strong,” he told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Johnson told “GMA3” about his plans for the city, including investing in under resourced communities to address mounting concerns over crime and education.
Chicago had nearly 700 homicides in 2022, which is lower than those in 2021 — the worst year for shooting deaths since the 1990s — but robberies were up nearly 20%.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, carjackings, looting and muggings in Chicago have become more visible, spreading from concentrated parts of the city to elsewhere, including sleepier neighborhoods that, until recently, were immune from violence, Johnson said.
Johnson said he and his wife are currently raising three children in the Austin community on the west side of Chicago, which he described as “one of the most dynamic neighborhoods” but also one of the most violence ridden.
“It’s one of the highest concentration of Black folks, arguably anywhere in the world,” he said. “And as much as we love it, we’ve had our share of challenges because of disinvestment.”
He plans to respond to the “immediate crisis” of rising crime levels by training and promoting 200 more detectives, implementing the city’s consent decree, and enforcing the red flag laws.
But getting at the “root causes” of crime, Johnson said, requires combatting systemic issues, including by increasing youth employment and improving mental health services.
As a former public school teacher, Johnson said he is also focused on ensuring every child receives a high-quality public education by taking a “comprehensive approach.”
“This very idea of public accommodations comes out of a deep, profound tradition of real liberation,” he said. “There’s a direct correlation between W-2’s in closing the achievement gap between Black and white and brown students.”
“It’s also abysmal, is the fact that we have well over 20,000 students in the city of Chicago who are without homes, and so addressing the housing crisis, making sure that there are real economic opportunities that exist in communities,” he added.
Johnson said it was an “exciting opportunity” to engage young voters in Chicago during the election, who turned out in force to support his candidacy as part of a “multicultural, intergenerational movement.”
“It’s such an incredible moment where the very young people that I taught who are now in their late 20s and early 30s — individuals who probably didn’t like me very much when they were 12 and 13 — I had to go back to them and ask them for their vote,” he said.
“We spoke to not just their hopes and aspirations, we actually gave concrete evidence of the work that we’ve done organizing around economic, racial and social justice and how we can actually translate that into real policy,” he said, mentioning mental health, environmental justice, job opportunities, and transportation as a few priorities.
After the outpouring of support from those young voters, Johnson called it a “great honor” to now have the opportunity to serve the city of Chicago.
“The son of sharecroppers is now prepared to run one of the largest economies in the world. It just shows you how remarkable this country really is,” he said.
(CAIRO) — A 3,200-year-old tomb belonging to Panehsy, the guard of the temple of Egyptian deity Amun, has been uncovered in Saqqara necropolis, south of the Egyptian capital Cairo, the tourism ministry said on Wednesday.
The temple-shaped tomb, dating back to ancient Egypt’s 19th dynasty (1292-1189 BC), was discovered by a team of Dutch and Italian archeologists.
Saqqara, one of the most important burial sites of ancient Egypt, has seen a series of archaeological discoveries in recent years.
Egypt aims to show off newly discovered artifacts as it seeks to revive its vital tourism industry, a key source of foreign currency and jobs for the struggling economy. The country attracted 11.7 million visitors in 2022.
“The new find sheds light on the development of Saqqara necropolis during the Ramesside era, and lifts the curtain on new individuals not yet known in historical sources,” said Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The tomb resembles a freestanding temple with an entrance, an inner courtyard of columned porticoes, a shaft leading to underground burial chambers, and three chapels. It borders the tomb of Maya, a high-ranking official during the reign of ancient Egypt’s boy-king Tutankhamun.
Inside the tomb, archeologists found a stela picturing Panehsy and his wife Baia, who was the singer of Amun, in front of an offering table, as well as several other drawings of priests and religious offerings.
The team also unearthed four small chapels during excavation work in the area, two of which bear well-preserved reliefs of funeral scenes and drawings of the resurrection of a mummy to live in the afterlife, officials said.
The team includes archeologists from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO), whose mission has been excavating the area since 1975, and the Egyptian Museum in Turin (Museo Egizio), which joined the excavation project as a main partner in 2015.
